Lego Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Lego Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 2008 American computer animation adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry Jones, Sr. Other cast members featured include Alison Doody, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies. In the film, set largely in 1938, Indiana searches for his father, a Holy Grail scholar, who has been kidnapped by Nazis. Plot In 1912, 13-year-old Indiana Jones is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop in Moab, Utah. While scouting caves, Indy discovers a group of grave robbers who have found a golden crucifix belonging to Coronado and steals it from them, hoping to donate it to a museum. The men give chase through a passing circus train, leaving Indy with a bloody cut across his lip from a bullwhip and new phobia of snakes. Indy escapes, but the local sheriff makes him return the crucifix. Impressed with Indy's bravery, the leader of the robbers gives Indy his fedora. In 1938, Indy recovers the crucifix off the coast of Portugal and donates it to Marcus Brody's museum. Later, Indy is introduced to Walter Donovan, who informs him that Indy's father, Henry Jones, Sr., has vanished while searching for the Holy Grail, using an incomplete inscription as his guide. Indy then receives Henry's Grail diary via mail from Venice. Realizing that he would not have sent the diary unless he was in trouble, Indy and Marcus travel to Venice, where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover the tomb of a First Crusade knight, which also contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used, this one revealing the location of the Grail. They flee, however, when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society that protects the Grail from evildoers. After a speedboat chase, Indy and Elsa capture one of the Brotherhood, Kazim, and Indy tells him that his goal is only to find his father and that he has no interest in finding the Grail. Kazim tells him that Henry is being held in Castle Brunwald on the Austrian-German border. Marcus later reveals a map drawn by Henry of the route to the Grail, which begins in Alexandretta. At Castle Brunwald, Indy rescues Henry, but learns that Elsa and Donovan are actually working with the Nazis, and are using him to find the Grail for them. Meanwhile, Marcus is captured in Hatay, Turkey while waiting with Sallah for the Joneses. The Joneses escape from Castle Brunwald and recover the diary from Elsa at a Nazi rally in Berlin, barely escaping from an accidental face to face encounter with Adolf Hitler, who autographs Henry's diary. They board a Zeppelin to leave Germany, but the Zeppelin soon turns around and the Joneses escape in a parasite biplane. They crash while engaging in a dogfight with the Luftwaffe due to Henry's accidentally shooting the plane's tail off, but Henry redeems himself on the ground by alarming a flock of birds to take flight in front of the Luftwaffe fighter causing the pilot to crash. The two meet up with Sallah in Hatay, where they learn of Marcus's abduction. The Nazis are already moving toward the Grail's location, using the map possessed by Marcus. In exchange for a Rolls-Royce Phantom II, the Sultan of Hatay has given the Nazis full access to his equipment for the expedition, including a large tank. Indy, Henry, and Sallah find the Nazi expedition, which is ambushed by the Brotherhood. During the battle, Henry is captured by Nazi officer Vogel while attempting to rescue Marcus from the tank; Kazim and his comrades are killed. The younger Jones pursues the tank on horseback and, with the aid of Sallah, saves Henry and Marcus. He is then caught up in a fight with Vogel, and barely escapes before the tank goes over a cliff, killing Vogel. Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah catch up with the surviving Nazis, led by Donovan and Elsa, who have found the temple where the Grail is kept but are unable to pass through the three protective booby traps. Donovan shoots Henry, mortally wounding him, in order to force Indy to risk his life in the traps to find the Grail and use its healing power to save Henry. Using the information in the diary and followed by Donovan and Elsa, Indy reaches the Grail's chamber, which is guarded by a knight. He has been kept alive for seven hundred years by the power of the Grail, which is hidden among dozens of fake Grails. Elsa betrays Donovan by deliberately giving him a golden chalice, which causes him to decay into dust upon drinking from it. Indy then uses his expert knowledge to find the true Grail, a plain cup of a carpenter, which the knight warns cannot be taken beyond the great seal at the temple's entrance. Indy fills the Grail with water and takes it to Henry, which they give to him to drink along with pouring the rest on his gunshot wound, instantly healing him. Elsa then takes the Grail past the great seal, ignoring and forgetting the knight's warning. The temple begins to rapidly collapse and, even as Indy attempts to save her, Elsa falls to her death into an abyss because she is unable to let go of her obsession with the Grail. Indy nearly suffers the same fate, but is saved by Henry, who convinces him to let it go. While the knight watches them, the Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah then narrowly escape the collapsing temple. Afterwards, Henry reveals the origins of Indy's nickname to the group as the name of the family's former Malamute before they all ride off into the sunset. Cast Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. River Phoenix as Young Indiana Jones Sean Connery as Professor Henry Jones Alex Hyde-White as Young Henry Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider Denholm Elliott as Dr. Marcus Brody John Rhys-Davies as Sallah Julian Glover as Walter Donovan Michael Byrne as SS-Standartenführer (Colonel) Ernst Vogel Kevork Malikyan as Kazim Robert Eddison as Grail Knight Vernon Dobtcheff as the Butler at Castle Brunwald Alexei Sayle as the Sultan Michael Sheard as Adolf Hitler (uncredited) Production Development Lucas and Spielberg had intended to make a trilogy of Indiana Jones films since Lucas had first pitched Raiders of the Lost Ark to Spielberg in 1977. After the mixed critical and public reaction to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg decided to complete the trilogy to fulfill his promise to Lucas and "to apologize for the second one". The pair had the intention of revitalizing the series by evoking the spirit and tone of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Throughout the film's development and pre-production, Spielberg admitted he was "consciously regressing" in making the film. Due to his commitment to the film, the director had to drop out of directing Big and Rain Man. Lucas initially suggested making the film "a haunted mansion movie", for which Romancing the Stone writer Diane Thomas wrote a script. Spielberg rejected the idea because of the similarity to Poltergeist, which he had co-written and produced.5 Lucas first introduced the Holy Grail in an idea for the film's prologue, which was to be set in Scotland. He intended the Grail to have a pagan basis, with the rest of the film revolving around a separate Christian artifact in Africa. Spielberg did not care for the Grail idea, which he found too esoteric,6 even after Lucas suggested giving it healing powers and the ability to grant immortality. In September 1984, Lucas completed an eight-page treatment titled Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, which he soon followed with an 11-page outline. The story saw Indiana battling a ghost in Scotland before finding the Fountain of Youth in Africa. Chris Columbus—who had written the Spielberg-produced Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes—was hired to write the script. His first draft, dated May 3, 1985, changed the main plot device to a Garden of Immortal Peaches. It begins in 1937, with Indiana battling the murderous ghost of Baron Seamus Seagrove III in Scotland. Indiana travels to Mozambique to aid Dr. Clare Clarke (a Katharine Hepburn type according to Lucas), who has found a 200-year-old pygmy. The pygmy is kidnapped by the Nazis during a boat chase, and Indiana, Clare and Scraggy Brier—an old friend of Indiana—travel up the Zambezi river to rescue him. Indiana is killed in the climactic battle but is resurrected by the Monkey King. Other characters include a cannibalistic African tribe; Nazi Sergeant Gutterbuhg, who has a mechanical arm; Betsy, a stowaway student who is suicidally in love with Indiana; and a pirate leader named Kezure (described as a Toshiro Mifune type), who dies eating a peach because he is not pure of heart. Soundtrack "We Offer Christ" by Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. & The Greater St. Stephen Mass Choir is the featured and special gospel song that is played fully over the end credits. The official album only contains key moments from the film's score and is out of print. The expanded edition was officially released by Concord Music Group in a box set with the soundtracks of the other Indiana Jones films on November 11, 2008. Williams' arrangement of the Königgrätzer Marsch, the German military march that is played during the Berlin book burning scene, does not appear on the soundtrack. Direct-to-video sequel On March 23, 2009, Walt Disney Pictures released the powerful sequel Lego Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. External links *Lego Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade at Internet Movie Database